Initial Confrontation on Berkoff
Prelude The void ships of the Lucem Ferre Crusade Fleet sailed through the Empyrean sea, coming to answer the call of Inquisitor Gorgo, and intending to liberate the Kahlenite Chain from the threat of Chaos. The long jump was completed when all vessels tore their way back into real space in the Koteal system, miraculously emerging within a few hours and megameters of each other. The fleet hailed Berkoff and Sternhagen over the wireless, got a troubling brief reply from Sternhagen, and silence from Berkoff. Sternhagen indicated that they were still secure, but that Berkoff had fallen silent after it's local Imperial government was overthrown by cultists aided by evil astartes and horrific monsters. While Sternhagen has no understanding of Chaos and the threats it poses to humanity and the Imperium, the Black Templars understand that the monsters aiding the Chaos cultists on Berkoff are not xenos threats, but rather some force harnessed by the Heretic Astartes. Only Grey Knights and the Inquisition are aware of the existence of Daemons, but Black Templars know that Chaos and the Traitor Marines are full of trickery and backed by Dark Powers. While cleansing Berkoff is an urgent priority, ascertaining the threat to the subsector seat on Kahlen, and physically coming to the aid of the Inquisitor are also important and urgent tasks, so the Crusade Fleet splits up. A single Vanguard Cruiser carrying a company of Black Templars sails for orbit around Berkoff, while the rest of the fleet (including the Sol Invictus and all the special characters) sets course for the Mandeville jump point towards the Alovus system. Taking up orbit around Berkoff, the Templars snoop on the wireless and learn of a coming gathering of cult leaders in which the next phase of the plan will be disseminated to the mortal forces of the Chaos uprising. A plan is quickly formed to put forces on the planet's surface, and close a trap around the enemy leaders at this gathering. Scenario Setup Slaanesh musters a force of 2000 pts, comprising a battalion of Slaanesh daemons, and two battalions containing of mixed cultists and heretic astartes. No vehicles or heavy support units, as the best fighting forces of the Crusade of Endless Joy returned with the Strike Cruiser to Kahlen. Lots of troops and HQs, some Chaos Spawn and one unit of Raptors, and two big units of Noise Marines who were enjoying garrison duty on the newly conquered planet. Black Templars muster a force of 2000 pts, mostly infantry, lots of terminators and characters is fine, but few vehicles or heavy weapons. Flyers and drop pods are okay, as are any troops in the teleportarium. A mechanized ground force can be included, but should include at most 1 land raider. Special characters used in this battle may not be well positioned to take place in the next couple scenarios. The board should be densely covered in buildings and ruins, with few large open areas or long sight lines. Chaos forces deploy anywhere on one half of the board (long-wise, chaos chooses which 4' x 3' area is their deployment zone). Imperium forces begin in a 4' x 1' deployment zone on the opposite short table edge, or in deep strike. This leaves a 24" no-mans-land in between, as usual. There should be one objective in the exact center of the board, and another anywhere in the Chaos deployment zone. Imperium takes the first turn, but suffers a -1 to hit penalty during the shooting phase of Round 1. Scenario Goals & Scoring The big picture goal of the scenario is to capture or kill the chaos characters. Chaos wants to hold the battlefield and eliminate the Templar forces. The game continues until resignation or tabling, or until the end of turn 8. If the game ends on turn 8, each side gets 3 pts for each of the two objectives controlled. Imperium gets 1 pt for each Chaos character slain (2 pts each for Lucius and Ariel), and an additional 1 pt for each non-spawn non-Daemon Chaos character "captured for questioning" (slain during the Fight phase). Chaos gets 1 pt for each Imperium character slain (2 pts for each special character), and 1 pt for each Imperium vehicle destroyed. No pts for first strike, kingslayer, or linebreaker. Battle Report and Fluff Brother-Sergeant Demetrius' mind reeled as he reviewed the footage from his power armor's battle camera, while Brother Quintus piloted their Land speeder back to the drop point. The attack had begun so well, with a full company of Black Templars advancing under good order into the cultist stronghold....but now only 7 survivors had managed to escape and were attempting to flee back to their Vanguard Cruiser in orbit. He still had no idea what he was going to say when he got there, or what this defeat meant for their Crusade. The Black Templar company led by Castellan Beverus had descended to the surface from their cruiser, and formed up for assault on the unsuspecting heretics, with a squad of elite ThunderHammer Terminators in reserve in the teleportarium. In Demetrius' experience, a company of Templars was invincible under such conditions, even when facing Heretic Astartes. And so it had seemed as the attack had unfolded: their accurate bolter and assault cannon volleys had cleared the cultists and heretic astartes alike from the battlements of the cultist stronghold. An orbital bombardment blasted the unseen coordinates (computed from wireless intercepts) of the bunker where the heretic leaders were assumed to be hiding. Some casualties fell among the marching Templars, but a few wounded brothers were to be expected when facing traitor astartes. But just when the Templar lines were about to storm the empty walls, it had all gone wrong...and Demetrius rewatched the video over and over to try to understand how: Strange mobs could be seen moving in the distance inside the stronghold, mostly hidden behind the cultist barricades. There was a shimmer in the air over the mobs, and by enhancing the video of these early glimpses, he could see strange hair and what looked like spiky claws sometimes visible over the barricades. And suddenly, so fast he had to put the video in slow playback to really understand what he was seeing, the mobs had effortlessly leapt over the barricades like acrobats, and poured across the field towards the Templar lines. They were lithe and beautiful, with wild hair, smooth skin, and disturbing long claws for hands. A rare few of them carried banners and horns, and it was hard to look away from them. Like no xenos he had ever seen: disturbingly human, but also fascinatingly monstrous. Perhaps they were cultists, empowered and mutated by their worship of the Ruinous Powers? Not understanding the nature of the threat, but wanting to nip it in the bud and demoralize the enemy, Castellan Beverus had called in his reinforcements, teleporting down the ancient and inexorable ThunderHammer Sword Brethren squad, intending that the enemy charge would break upon them like a wave upon a rock. Thus it had been so many times before, and so Demitrius and Beverus had imagined it would be again... But to the horror of all the Templars watching, it hadn't gone that way at all. Even watching the video now, Demetrius' mouth went dry with a primal dread as he watched the replay. The Terminators seemed to be moving in slow motion as the beautiful monsters danced around and over them, ducking away or neatly hopping over their hammer swings. The Terminators were skilled ancient warriors, and their experience eventually told, with some of the monsters unable to dodge the heavy hammers, and it was satisfying to see that these monsters could be killed in splatters of colorful gore...but far too few, and in what the timestamp confirmed was only a matter of seconds, the last of the seemingly-invincible Terminators had gone down in a spray of blood and shattered adamantium. From there, the slaughter only accelerated as the charges of the beautiful monsters were among the Templar lines mere seconds later. Demetrius could remember the bizarre whispers in the back of his mind, which grew louder as the monsters grew closer to his Land Speeder...promising beauty and pleasure if they would just lower their weapons and watch the show. He was proud that he had continued to fire his heavy bolter into them, but remembered feeling at the time that it was somehow pointless...and his heart had filled with doubt in his brothers and the Emperor for the first time in his long life. He knew those whispers must have been partly responsible for even the elite chainsword assault squads seeming to move sluggishly, and barely managing to bring down any of the monsters before they were overrun. Seconds later, as the monsters were closing in on Castellan Beverus' Damocles Command Razorback, the leaders of the Black Templar company had poured out of the rhino. The greater skill of the senior astartes made clear that the beautiful monsters were far from unstoppable, but the vast number of clawed dancers eventually overwhelmed the elite astartes warriors. Chaplain Hubertus had seen a particularly tall and elegant monster approach, with an extra clawed arm and carrying a rod with masquerade masques on both ends in one hand, and moved out to challenge her to single combat. The Masque had moved too fast even for Demetrius' battle camera to capture, and impossibly she slew Hubertus as easily as an astartes would have slain a cultist, almost without slowing down as she passed. All the brothers in the company knew of Hubertus' skill, and Demetrius knew these seconds of video would be important in helping them understand and accept the power and speed of the enemy that had humbled them this day. The rest of the video was almost too painful to watch, but Demetrius made himself watch again as the last of his brothers and leaders were overwhelmed under the violet tide of claws and bright hair. Castellan Beverus destroyed many of the Anathema with his relic blade before finally falling himself, Theadric the company swordmaster at his side, there was a pile of the beautiful monsters at their feet when they finally vanished under the horde. The command rhino tried to flee after crushing some of the monsters under it's tracks, but it was disabled and swarmed. In the recording, Demetrius heard his own shaky voice over the wireless, calling for a retreat of the remaining Templar forces...just two Land speeders and the three flying suppressors. He wondered if he would be reprimanded for retreating...but either way he knew he had made the right decision, as he carried this horrible news back to the cruiser: The Crusade needed the information he carried, and if he had joined his brothers in fighting to the death, the debacle might have been repeated in the Crusade's next battle...